Hi Ho Quicksilver!! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vermillion

Cinnabar is a brick-red ore of mercury-sulfide. Grinding cinnabar into a powder is the primary method of obtaining vermillion, and was originally discovered as a by-product of mercury mining. Because the process of producing vermillion was recognised as being toxic, efforts to find easier and safer ways of producing the pigment were under way as early as the 4th century BC, when the Chinese found a method of making synthetic vermillion.

By the 17th century, a method had been devised where mercury and melted sulfur were mashed together, then heated to produce vapour that was then condensed, then treated with alkali and washed to remove the sulfur before being ground, producing the pigment.

This method remains the primary means of producing vermillion today.

Answer: True

Mercury's chemical symbol, Hg, is derived from its old name, 'hydrargyrum'. This is a latinised version of the Greek word 'hydrargyros', a compound word made of the words for water ('hydr-', which is the root of the Greek word 'hydōr') and silver ('argyros').

The name came about as a simple description of mercury's properties, in that it is liquid at standard temperature and pressure (the only metal to be so), and is silver in colour. Hydrargyrum was subsequently named mercury after the closest planet to the Sun, and is also referred to as 'quicksilver', again in relation to the fact that it is liquid, and thus able to move quickly.

Answer: Heat

Caloris Planitia is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System, with a diameter of approximately 1550km. Caloris is believed to be between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years old, and was formed as a result of an impact between Mercury and an object of around 100km in diameter. Discovered in 1974 during the mission of Mariner 10, Caloris was named for the word 'calor', the Latin for 'heat', as a result of the fact that the Sun is directly above the basin every second time that Mercury reaches perihelion, which is the closest approach to the Sun in its orbit.

Answer: Mariner

Mariner 10 was launched in November 1973 as the final mission of the Mariner programme. The primary purpose of the mission was to make close observations both of Venus (which had been visited by a number of previous spacecraft) and Mercury. Mariner's proposed trajectory would also include a gravitational slingshot, using Venus's gravitational field to alter the spacecraft's flightpath and allow it to intercept Mercury. Mariner 10 made its first flyby of Mercury on 29 March 1974, taking photographs of the planet's dark side.

After looping around the Sun, Mariner 10 made a second flyby on 21 September with its cameras on the planet's southern hemisphere. A third and final flyby occurred on 16 March 1975, when the spacecraft passed over the planet's north pole. On 24 March 1975, the spacecraft made an unprogrammed pitch turn, indicating that it had exhausted its supply of maneuvering fuel.

At this point, the spacecraft was signalled to switch off its transmitter, ending the mission. No further missions to Mercury were undertaken until 2011, when the MESSENGER spacecraft entered the planet's orbit, spending a total of four years making observations before it was ordered to crash onto Mercury's surface.

Answer: Deke Slayton

In January 1959, Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton, a US Air Force test pilot, was selected as one of the first group of seven astronauts. In the same year, during a centrifuge run, doctors noticed that Slayton had a slightly irregular heartbeat, and was diagnosed with Idiopathic Atrial Fibrillation, although he was kept on flight status. Selected to fly Mercury's second orbital mission in mid-1962, Slayton began preparing for the flight he planned to name as 'Delta 7'.

However, two months prior to launch, he was replaced by his back-up, Scott Carpenter.

Although initially disqualified from the one flight, NASA's management elected to keep him medically disqualified. To compensate, he was first made Chief Astronaut, serving as the link between the astronauts and management, before being appointed as Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the training and crew selection of astronauts.

In 1971, after several years of trying different treatments for his heart condition, Slayton was examined by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, having not suffered any irregular fibrillation for some time.

This examination cleared him to return to flight status, and he finally flew in space as the Docking Module Pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

Answer: Atlas

Project Mercury began in 1959 with plans in place for both suborbital and orbital flights using the Redstone and Atlas boosters respectively. Atlas was chosen as the orbital launch vehicle partly through necessity, as it was the only one in the US inventory powerful enough and immediately available to put a Mercury spacecraft into orbit.

However, the Atlas D, the version chosen, had suffered a number of launch failures and required a great deal of work to make it man-rated, and thus safe for use as a launch vehicle of a manned spacecraft.

The Mercury-Atlas combination underwent a total of six unmanned launches between September 1959 and November 1961, suffering two total failures, before mission MA-5, carrying a chimpanzee called Enos, undertook a successful orbital flight.

This provided sufficient evidence to man-rate the Atlas, and led to mission MA-6, carrying astronaut John Glenn (who named the mission 'Friendship 7') becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962. Atlas was subsequently used on three further Mercury flights, culminating in MA-9 ('Faith 7'), when Gordon Cooper became the first American to spend more than a day in space.

Answer: Maia

In Roman mythology, Mercury is the son of Maia and Jupiter. This stems from their Greek equivalents, where Maia, the daughter of Atlas, who avoided the company of the gods, was secretly impregnated by Zeus (the Greek counterpart of Jupiter), and gave birth to Hermes (Mercury). Maia is also known as having raised the infant Arcas, the son of Jupiter and Callisto, as a result of Callisto being turned into a bear by Juno, the spurned wife of Jupiter.

In the Roman tradition, Maia initially embodied the concept of growth, with her name suggested to be derived from the adjective 'maius' / 'maior', meaning larger or greater.

Her name is also suggested as the origin of the name of the month of May. This links to her connection to Mercury, who was honoured as patron of merchants and increaser of profits on 15 May (the Ides).

Answer: Soldiers

Mercury's place as the patron of thieves comes from his reputation as a trickster and a thief, summed up by a story of him stealing a herd of cattle. Observed by an old man named Battus, Mercury made him promise not to reveal the theft. Then, Mercury transformed himself into a country swain and enquired after the herd, promising Battus a bullock and heifer in return. Battus told where the herd was being kept, after which Mercury revealed his true identity and turned Battus to stone.

As the messenger, Mercury was the usual mediator between gods and mortals, and thus served as the patron of circulation, both of goods, and thus of the merchants who purveyed them, and of travellers. Mercury's Roman name, Mercurius, is likely derived from the Latin word 'merx', meaning 'merchandise'.

Answer: Tanzania

Farrokh Bulsara was born in Stone Town, the old section of Zanzibar City, in the Sultanate of Zanzibar on 5 September 1946. Of Parsi descent, Farrokh's family originated in the Indian state of Gujarat, with his parents moving to Zanzibar as a result of his father's job with the British Colonial Office. Between the ages of eight and seventeen, Farrokh attended boarding school in India, during which time he began calling himself "Freddie". Following the end of his time at school, he returned to Zanzibar in 1963.

The following year, a revolution led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his predominantly Arab government, and led to the deaths of thousands of ethnic Arabs and Indians, with Zanzibar joining mainland Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

As a result, the Bulsara family fled Zanzibar for the UK and settled in Feltham, near London. After graduating from Ealing Art College in 1969, Freddie worked as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport, as well as being the singer in a number of different bands, eventually ending up as the lead singer of Smile, alongside drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May.

In 1971, the trio were joined by bass player John Deacon to form a new group that Freddie suggested be called 'Queen'. At the same time, Freddie legally changed his surname and became Freddie Mercury.

Answer: Montserrat Caballé

Freddie Mercury had been a long time fan of opera, and especially the Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, when he mentioned in a 1986 interview on Spanish television that he wanted to meet her. They met for the first time in 1987, with Mercury stating how much he would like to be able to work with her one day.

At that time, Caballé's home town of Barcelona had been selected as the host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics, and Mercury, who had been asked to write a song in celebration of this, approached Caballé to see whether she would like to collaborate.

The two agreed that, rather than make just a single, they work together to produce a full album, with the title track to serve as the theme of the Olympics. The eight tracks on the album were mostly written by Mercury alongside Mike Moran, with Tim Rice credited on two, and Caballé on "Ensueño".

In spite of Caballé's tight schedule, the album, "Barcelona", was successfully completed and released on 10 October 1988. Two days prior to the album's release, Mercury and Caballé performed three of the tracks from it, including the title track, at a concert commemorating the arrival of the Olympic Flag in the city.

At the time, the effects of Freddie Mercury's illness were beginning to tell, and this proved to be his final live performance.